Bush's Thailand trip turns heat on Myanmar

By Matt Spetalnick

BANGKOK (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush flew into Bangkok on Wednesday on the latest leg of a pre-Olympics Asian tour, although his focus in Thailand is mainly on the "outpost of tyranny" junta in neighbouring Myanmar.

In a broad speech on U.S. involvement in Asia to be delivered on Thursday, Bush will repeat his mantra for the former Burma's military rulers "to release Aung San Suu Kyi", the opposition leader and Nobel laureate detained for the last five years.

In all, Suu Kyi, 63, has been in prison or under house arrest for nearly 13 of the last 19 years.

After a meeting with Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej, Bush praised Bangkok for its role in helping funnel emergency relief to the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which killed 134,000 when it slammed into Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta on May 2.

"We want to see prosperity and freedom restored to Burma," he told reporters.

On Thursday, he will cover the whole gamut of U.S. policy in Asia, from North Korea's nuclear programme to regional security and trans-Pacific trade to his strongest criticism yet of China's attitude to human rights.

"The United States believes the people of China deserve the fundamental liberty that is the natural right of all human beings," Bush will say, according to excerpts of Thursday's speech released in advance.

"So America stands in firm opposition to China's detention of political dissidents, human rights advocates and religious activists," he will say.